We've been playing SOE's new free-to-play MMOFPS, PlanetSide 2, and today we're kicking off our review-in-progress series with a focus on character creation and first impressions.

If you aren't overwhelmed with the experience and manage to get a hang for what's going on, the beauty of the game shines through particularly well. At least so far, SOE has succeeded where the original PlanetSide fell short: PlanetSide 2 is first and foremost a solid shooter.

We recently had a chance to catch up with BioWare senior producer Blaine Christine to discuss the newly launched free-to-play option for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Read on to find out what we learned!

Let's first cut to why Star Wars: The Old Republic even went free-to-play to begin with. According to Blaine, SWTOR was designed as a subscription-based game early on and while BioWare did notice the obvious shift towards free-to-play games in the run up to launch, the game simply wasn't designed for that business model. However, BioWare was looking to possibly add some sort of microtransactions to the game post-launch. As it turned out, the free-to-play situation made it much harder for BioWare to not only keep players, but also attract new players, and so the team fast-tracked retrofitting the game in order to facilitate the free-to-play model we now see.

PlanetSide 2 is a scifi MMOFPS from Sony Online Entertainment that takes all the best features of the original PlanetSide and brings them into the modern gaming age, adding improvements that are expected in the genre. Players join one of three factions (Terran Republic, New Conglomerate, or Vanu Sovereignty) and engage in combat on foot, vehicles, or the skies.

Battle across open fields to urban centers with and against hundreds of other players to control key territories and valuable resources.